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Friday, December 31, 2010

I Resolve...

Do you make New Years resolutions? I know many people do and many people have given up because they never keep them anyway. I know my resolutions seem to be similar year after year: lose weight, eat healthier, read more, but the very process of making the resolutions is important. It's a little piece of you saying I want to be better, I want to improve myself, I'm not giving up and I will accept even the smallest victory as progress.

It's easier, they say, to incorporate one thing at a time and make it part of your daily routine. Trying to do too much at one time is a sure-fire way to not keep any of your resolutions. The last seven months, I've incorporated riding my exercise bike into my routine. It helps to have someone exercising along with you and some kind of goal - my exercising partner is in Boston, and yet we ride daily, and we have a goal on our virtual bike trip. We started on June 1st in Bar Harbor, Maine and have finished the year in Buffalo, New York, checking in every Friday with a spreadsheet that tracks our daily miles. The holidays have thrown things out of whack a bit, so it's time to get things back on track.

And the end of the year is a good time to do just that. As we look back at the old year, our accomplishments, our failures, our good times and bad, we can tweak ourselves just that little bit to get ourself back on track, to get ourselves on the road we want to be on, to get ourselves situated for the future, to set a plan in motion.

Maybe a resolution is just a part of a 12 month plan, part of what we need to do. Are you making a resolution this year? What are you going to work on in the new year? And where do you see yourself in one year's time?

Happy New Year to all, and a heart-felt thank you for letting me come into your lives just a tiny bit, for you have come into mine and I am better because of you.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

What's Red and Green with Blue all over?

Yesterday morning I awoke to white! We had gotten a few inches of snow overnight and before the snow lost its luster, I took a picture of it sticking to the trees across the street. It looked like someone had frosted the trees, an icing courtesy of Mother Nature! Well, that really put me in a holiday spirit so today I opened the boxes and bags of decorations that I had pulled out and Christmasified my condo! There was red, there was green, but there was also a suspicious blue that ran throughout many of the decorations! There is a Christmas angel under my little tree, received from a friend in Spain; there is a snowflake man from a friend in Oregon; there's a cable car from a friend in San Francisco and Norwegian reindeer from a friend in Britain who spent a summer in Norway. There's two pillows, one from a cousin in Texas, and one from a phile friend in Pittsburgh. There are ornaments and trinkets I picked up on Cape Cod, in Germany, and at the Chicago Christmas markets. There's Snoopy and Woodstock and Garfield and snowmen and lots and lots of Stitches! There are ornaments from Randolph AFB and from Christmas packages throughout the years; there's Hallmark ornaments and a Blackhawk one and a pirate nutcracker. There's a puggie in a stocking ornament and silver reindeer stocking holders. But mostly there's joy at the season, happy memories of years past, anticipation of being with family and the fun and food that brings, there's little treasures for family and friends yet to be wrapped and wishes of tidings of great joy to everyone and on earth peace, good will toward men.